Bridging the Energy Performance Gap in Buildings: Thinking Beyond Energy Labels and Certificates

In 1987, Brundtland coined the term "sustainable development" to tackle the worldwide issue of environmental deterioration. Subsequent to that, swift progressions in science and technology have resulted in climate change, characterized by a rapid increase in global temperatures. The primary objective of the Paris Climate agreement is to limit...

Towards energy sufficient buildings and thermal comfort in the built environment

In order to ensure the sustainable development of cities, the existing building stock has to be transformed to stay relevant to the changing needs of urban dwellers and to reduce the economic and environmental impacts of cities on the planet. Thus, innovating and developing a strategy that prepares the built environment for 2050 is of...

Challenges in mitigating the energy performance gap in the Dutch office stock: A case study research on sustainable adaptations to the existing stock considering different stakeholders’ perspectives

Currently, clear European and Global climate goals, such as the Paris Agreement and the European Energy Efficiency Directive, are in place to stimulate more efficient use of resources and lower emissions. The built environment can play a significant role in reaching these objectives in the future since it consumes around 40% of the total energy...

Investigating the effect of human behaviour on the energy performance of 3 typical Dutch residential dwellings using sensors and dynamic performance modelling

Buildings don’t use energy: People do. Do highly efficient homes really save energy? Counter-intuitively, dwellings that use less energy have low energy efficiency, and those with higher energy consumption have higher efficiency. Moreover, even accurate building energy simulation for multiple buildings could not predict the actual energy...